


Follow My Lead

by Corrie71



Series: STID Missing Moments [1]
Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: M/M, Missing Scene, Star Trek: AOS
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-04
Updated: 2013-10-04
Packaged: 2017-12-28 09:02:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,806
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/990203
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Corrie71/pseuds/Corrie71
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A revised opening scene of Star Trek: Into Darkness from McCoy's point of view, with heavy McKirk emphasis.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Follow My Lead

“What the hell’s that when it’s at home?” Bones glanced up from his charts at the bundle of elephant colored material that Jim had just dropped on his desk.

“It’s a disguise.”

“Unless your disguise needs medical treatment, get it off my desk.” Bones grinned to take the sting out of his words before returning to his reports. Jim ignored him completely.

“Spock is done with his volcano neutralizing device.”

“Delightful.” Bones answered. “You know, flying on the Enterprise is bad enough, especially when we’re in loop-de-loops around some god forsaken planet. But I didn’t sign up to be a submariner. Tell Spock to freeze the volcano so we save these people and all go home.”

“He and Uhura are going to do that. We’re the distraction.” 

“Who’s the we in that sentence?” Bones glanced up.

“You and me.” Beaming, Jim pointed at his chest and then back to Bones.

“No. Nope. No way, kid. Pick on someone else for a change. Get Scotty to go with you. Or Sulu. Heck, go see if Poseidon is available for all I care. Not going.”

“Scotty is on the comm. And Sulu is going with Spock and Uhura. You’re coming with me. It’ll be fun. Like shore leave.” Jim shot him another beaming smile. Bones did not return it.

“On our last shore leave, you nearly got us both killed. Actually, that’s a fair description of every shore leave we’ve ever had.”

“Right, like I said, fun! Suit up, Bones. We’re going down—or up— whatever. Come on!”

Bones rolled his eyes, tossed his PADD on the desk, and followed Jim out the sickbay doors. “You know, I’m actually busy in here. We just got in that Andorian shingles vaccine. I have several important experiments on-going. I was just about to get lunch.” 

“What’s next? Am I messing up your pedicure appointment?”

“Massage appointment.”

“I can help you there.” Jim waggled his brows until Bones cracked a smile. God, he loved Jim. Still, he couldn’t let him think he’d gotten the advantage. If Jim suspected how big his soft spot for him was, Bones would never have any rest. Just to keep up appearances, Bones continued his complaining as he followed Jim Kirk through the ship. 

“Why aren’t we going to the transporter room?”

“We’re underwater, Bones. Can’t beam from underwater.”

“Really?” Bones glanced at the smirk on Jim’s face. 

“No. Actually, we can’t beam down because of the planet’s enhanced magnetic field. Scotty knows all the details. Anyway, it means no transporters. Figured that you’d like that part, right?”

“If you say so, kid. What’s that?” Jim held out a rubbery silver suit and Bones took it, warily watching Jim help the ensign manning the Enterprise portal stash their disguises in a similar looking bag. 

‘Wetsuit. We’re swimming to the surface.”

“So now we’re mermaids?”

“I, for one, am a merman.” Jim answered. “As are you, as I very well know.” 

Bones changed with a minimum of grumbling into the sleek suit and only jumped about a foot when Jim pinched his ass.

“You know, if you want us to stay secret, you gotta stop doing stuff like that in front of the kids, darlin’.” Bones hissed to Jim, indicating the wide-eyed ensign. Within a few moments, Jim knew the kid’s name, where he was from, what his field of interest was, and had the ensign smiling and laughing. People blossomed under the full force of Jim’s charm. Bones didn’t have that same quality and always marveled when he got to see Jim work his magic with people.

Jim handed him a mini-breathing tube and strapped the backpack with their disguises to him. “You can carry the gear. I’ll hold the compass. After Ensign Cameron here lets us out, we’re going to propel to the surface and head toward a small beach. From there, it’s about a five kilometer walk to the temple.”  
“Five kilometer! Temple! Do I need a briefing on this? I’m not even sure what planet we’re currently immersed in.” 

“Yes, you do. We talked about their primitive medical care just last night at supper. Well, actually you treated us to a monologue with some very strange Southern sayings. But the point is, you don’t need a briefing. We just need to get the people away from the volcano.” Jim patted his shoulder. “Just follow my lead, Bones.”

They swam quickly to the surface and found the rocky beach before donning their grey robes. Bones just sighed heavily when he saw how wrapped up they were going to be. No one had mentioned that Nibiru was so hot. And they were stomping around down here in wetsuits covered with priest robes. Not the coolest outfit. Bones swiped at the sweat running down his face.

They started their trek on a narrow, pebbly footpath up the side of an actual cliff, surrounded by crimson foliage on thin trunks that vaguely reminded him of the Dr. Seuss Lorax book from when he was a kid. He turned to mention this to Jim and stared. He was alone.  
“Jim?” he hissed. Where was he?

In seconds, Jim jogged up behind him, holding a halter, connected to a…

“What the hell is that thing?” Bones struggled out of his face covering to ask.

“Cover your face! The Prime Directive!” 

“You and Spock. If I never hear another word about the Prime Directive, it’ll be too soon. What is that?” Bones pointed to the animal behind Jim. 

“It’s a horse.”

“A horse! Darlin’, that is not a horse. That is a…” Words again failed Bones. 

“It’s a Nibiruian horse.” Jim said, clucking to the animal—Bones was fairly certain it was not, in fact, a horse—and led it past him on the narrow footpath. Bones glanced back down toward the water and the still hidden Enterprise and considered mutiny. He really did. After all, how bad could a court martial actually be? Eventually, he just turned and strode up the path after Jim. He couldn’t leave the idiot kid alone down here.

“Remember, Bones, follow my lead.”

“Don’t I always, kiddo?” 

After stashing the animal in the foliage, they left him? Her? It? Contently eating leaves. Maybe it was a cow. It reminded Bones of a cow chewing cud. They strode through the woods for a bit with ropey scarlet vines dangling from every surface, smacking him in the face as he walked. Bones just loved space exploration. Why had he signed up for Starfleet again? Eventually, they discovered a flagstone path with a ziggurat made of crimson bamboo, covered in the same toxic looking red foliage that surrounded them. Clear water lapped at either side of the pathway. Bones itched to scan the indigenous plants with his tricorder but he didn’t want to endure another lecture on the Prime Directive from his boyfriend.

Jim glanced around the clearing and confidently strode up the walkway, Bones trailing behind. In moments, Jim mounted the few steps and disappeared into the building. Bones shook his head and followed. The inside of the building was dark and hot, probably from the strangely glowing palm sized rocks that lined a path to the center of the square room. A scroll sat on a raised dais in the center. White, vaguely humanoid shapes knelt in front of it, writhing and waving their hands in the air. Maybe they were worshipping? 

Jim glanced around and strode confidently toward the alter. Bones followed warily. The humanoids—Nibiruians, he supposed— glanced at them but made no move to stop them or any sign of protest. Jim reached the platform and glanced around. Without so much as a warning, Jim leapt up the steps and snatched the scroll. He whirled back toward Bones and started running. Bones gaped at him as he rushed past and only Jim’s shout of “Run, Bones!” got him to move. He dashed out the door, following Kirk, with a congregation of really pissed off Nibiruians behind him. 

They dashed into the red foliage again, sprinting as fast as they could. The sharp leaves tore at their robes, slowing them down. Vines tangled around his neck and twice Bones nearly tripped. Bones drifted to the left, trying to draw some of the angry natives away from Jim, running harder than he had since the Academy. He saw the horse to his right and veered back just as Jim fired his phaser at the animal, stunning it instantly. He skidded to a stop and ripped the covering from his face.

“Damnit, man! That was our ride. You just stunned our ride!” 

Bones didn’t even hear Jim’s reply as he took off running after him again. He wasn’t sure they were going in the right direction, really had no idea what their mission was, and could do little but follow Jim. Pretty much a summary of his life since that day on the shuttle out of Riverside.

“What the hell did you take?” He yelled to Jim.

“I don’t know. But they were bowing to it.”

If Bones had possessed the energy to spare, he’d have rolled his eyes. As it was, he just kept running, the breath sawing in and out of his lungs. Maybe he should put in a bit more time at the Enterprise gym. He could hear Jim on the communicator but couldn’t make out much of the conversation. 

“You gotta make it back to the Enterprise on your own.” Bones heard Sulu say over the rush of his blood in his ears and the pounding of his feet, dodging massive grey boulders as he hurtled along, trying hard not to fall. A spear flew over his shoulder and pierced the floor of the jungle. Suddenly, Bones realized that what he’d thought was the pounding of his own feet was, in fact, primitive weapons being flung at their backs.

“They’re trying to kill us. They’re trying to kill us, Jim.” 

Over the chaos and the noise surrounding them, Bones distinctly heard Jim’s laugh. He knew that this was Jim Kirk’s idea of a great time. How they had ever ended up together was a mystery to Bones because he was most definitely not having fun. 

At all.

“Jim! Jim! The beach is that way!” 

“We’re not going to the beach!” Jim slammed the scroll into a tree and Bones watched it unroll like a bandage. He glimpsed some sort of hieroglyphics as he galloped past. Certainly no reason for the locals to fling spears at them.

“I hate this!” He yelled to his captain, his friend, his love as he kept up with him. 

“I know you do!” Jim yelled back, joy in his voice. And in the next second, he followed Jim straight over a cliff, plunging toward the ocean below that was the exact color of his beloved’s eyes.

**Author's Note:**

> 1) I was an English major in college and even I know that the science in STID is just a giant mess. It’s closer to magic in Harry Potter world than actual science. Work with me here. I couldn’t write actual science anyway and while I can fix the Bones-lite and add in the McKirk, I can’t fix the science.
> 
> 2) Since we started all in-medias-res here, I have no idea how Jim and Bones got to the temple. Did they hitch hike? Drop in from the sky? Ride the tauntaun up from the beach? Sulu says that they can’t pick McCoy and Kirk up in the shuttle. Does that mean that they dropped them off, like a mom in a minivan dropping her teenagers at the mall? No idea. I chose to have them swim out from the sunken Enterprise. 
> 
> 3) I have only seen the movie but have not read the novelization of STID so I’m only using the two movies (2009 and 2013) as canon. 
> 
> 4) I have no idea what the heck that animal thing was that they were supposed to ride out on. The wiki entries for it actually say "animal." I decided it’s a horse. And I also have no idea why Jim stunned the animal so I chose not to explain it here.


End file.
